Day 47-48

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Created on Sunday, 25 October 2015 04:11

21/22.10.2015 Kathmandu (Nepal) - Alipurduar (Indien)

The most stressful two days so far of the World Tour are behind us, but first things first:
After breakfast at the Grand Hotel, we left Kathmandu on the eastern route and got to see a breathtaking route. Often the Streets resulted in narrow and steep roads up and down, with fantastic views of the mountains of Nepal.

And even on these roads the bus roofs are still full of passengers.

After about four hours we reached the highway no. 1 in the 'flatland' and were happy about the quickly progress. Then suddenly a roadblock appeared and there were already waiting other cars and busses. According to the Information from the police station were at the track strikes and political protests, a continue was too dangerous and therefore not allowed. Around midnight all vehicles would be picked up by a police escort and accompanied through the region. All persuasion did not help, we had to wait.

So our time schedule (and the booked hotel) was gone, so we needed to improve. We decided to take a nap at dusk in the Deloreans and to control the border to the accompanying escort and travel on to India, otherwise the fixed Myanmar-date is in danger.

Accompanied by various vocal performances and flute music as well awaiting bus tourists and Indian techno from the neighboring local pub we tried to get some sleep.
At midnight no police escort was far and wide to see, but to demand it was always ‚Police is coming, Ten Minutes‘. Finally by 1am at night the lights of a vehicle caravan approached, but they didn’t stopped and drove by with 40 mph. All the waiting busses and the three DeLoreans needled in and offs we went the wild ride.
Indian or Nepalese bus drivers must have a suicidal gene whose driving style can not be explained otherwise: A two-lane road with oncoming traffic, three Delorean behind each other, then next to it in the left lane (! Left-hand traffic) a minibus on the second track, to the right a minibus overtaking coach, with a wheel already on the turf, and when it gets tough, even a native sheet metal bus elbows his way somewhere in between. And all this amid deafening all time honking with all vehicles involved.
So we drove 100 miles through the 'protest area', then the ride has been released without an escort. Another 50 miles further we approached the border India / Nepal, but thought ahead and still approved us one hour of sleep. Shortly before 8am we arrived at the border. On the Nepal side, the exit data was pure again entered manually into lists and after on the Indian side, the computer had failed, there was also there again everything in paper form. The main thing is we have the official stamp in our documents!

After another 120 miles and four hour drive we arrived at our hotel in Alipurduar.

Sleeping there was not yet, because first some smaller repairs for the Delorean had to be done. After an early dinner we finally fell into bed dead tired.

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Day 46

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Created on Friday, 23 October 2015 17:52

10/20/2015 Kathmandu (Nepal)

Day 45

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Created on Friday, 23 October 2015 17:32

10/19/2015 Butwal – Kathmandu (Nepal)

Actually we expected the really bad roads now in Nepal. But we are positively surprised that the roads are much better here - compared to India. For sure, the highways are not comparable to the European motorways. They do have lots of potholes and surface irregularities but they are well build out and good to drive.   

After 140 km of highway to Kathmandu the road led up into the mountains. There the road got narrower and due to road works (on and off there is a landslide…) the road got rougher. As well the traffic got heavier. It just takes some time until you can overtake a lorry driving with walking speed. The local drivers of small trucks and busses are not so patient – just continuously blow the horn and pass by. Sometimes the traffic is stuck at bottlenecks, but somehow it goes along again.

Pure landscape:

The busses are always chock-full of passengers. Who doesn’t fit in anymore is simply sitting on the roof.

After about seven hours of driving we reached Kathmandu and our “Grand Hotel” where we will stay two nights. Tomorrow we allow us a day off.

Day 44

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Created on Tuesday, 20 October 2015 08:02

10/18/2015 Faizabad (India) - Butwal (Nepal)

Only this morning we saw, what our Deloreans endured yesterday. A thick layer of dust covered the car, also the engine was totally dusty. But what the heck, cleaning the windscreens and continuing the worldtour.

After a stop at the petrol station of our confidence (where we are surrounded by onlookers as usual)

there was a 140km long stage about a highway that was in good condition for indian relations. But be always very careful, because of the 'individually' loading or because tractors, trucks and bicycles drive towards on the own road. That's usual here in India...

Departed from the highway we struggled nearly an hour (3 miles) through the chaotic traffic of Gorakhpur (actually our target of yesterday)

and the remaining 80 miles to the border India/Nepal.
Also there again the full traffic chaos, trucks, busses, pickups trucks, bikes, mopeds, bicycles, rickshaws and pedestrians fighting for the smallest space gain, and three Deloreans between.

First we had to get through the indian departure formalities, that amazingly worked quickly. Then we  had to go 150 yards to the nepalese station, there again the immigration formalities for men and machines. Here are the blessings (?) of modern IT not yet arrived, everything is handwritten in  books.

Even here we were against expectation ready in nearly an hour and may enter Nepal.

First destination is Butwal, located around 12 miles behind the border. Our hotel Darcy's International has a underground car park, where we had a short technic session. André's starter was changed, the air filters were cleaned, a radiator fan relay was changed and some other small details.

Day 43

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Created on Tuesday, 20 October 2015 07:43

17.10.2015 Chhatarpur - Faizabad (Indien)

There are good roads, bad roads and Indian roads we had to learn today. (sorrowfully). Calculated was a distance from 323 miles , according to our navigation system travel time about 9 hours. But after about 50 miles we were done with our plans, there was nothing you can call a road, off road track or pot-hole way almost does no give a description to what we had experienced.

Pot-holes with a little bit asphalt in between ( up to 17 miles length!!!), gravel roads , sand roads and a temporary pontoon bridge we were allowed to go through. Almost incredible, peak load for man and machine.

Up to a little dent on Wolfgang's left back rim there were no visual damage or problems on the cars

After about 255 miles and 11 hours travel time (!) it was already dusky and we decided to end this stage in Faizabad , because to drive at night in India is something like hara-kiri. Fortunately yesterday we found a hotel on the internet and   we programmed the address into the navigation system. For the first time the DWT team was really done…..

Translation by DWT-Translation-Team